Mention free and you attract a lot of attention even though we should all know that “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. Here’s some ways to bolster your chances of gaining a new client and saving money on listing photography:
Brining in a professional photographer to make photos of a client’s home can sometimes land an agent the listing. It’s the easiest concept for a seller to grasp over a presentation full of esoteric, real estate-centric marketing techniques and jargon. If you are meeting with a potential client with a quality home, that will take your lead in pricing it correctly, would you “buy” that listing for $100-$200? By offering to include professional photography for “free”, a $XXX value, you may well pick up the listing over the more than 800 active listing agents in the AV.
Especially with new homes and renovated flips, there is the opportunity to make a commission by referring a number of other customers that want quality photos of a given home. Not only could you get your listing photos for free, there is the possibility of making money from the commissions. Once on site and set up, taking additional photos to showcase the work of the tradesmen that contributed their expertise is very easy. It takes more time as the additional photos are composed to showcase features relevant to each customer and may not necessarily be useful for the MLS listing. For example, photos of the interior designer’s work will focus more on “stuff” rather than the bigger picture. Interiors photography is not easy and many contractors like to have very good images of jobs they have done for their Book.
©2015, Kenneth Brown. All rights reserved.